Night Terrors
by Poultry Man
Summary: Starfire seeks comfort from an inexplicable panic attack.


Darkness had spread across the room like a fog, obscuring the familiar world from view. Light purple walls became hidden under it's veil. Once clear and discernible shapes were now transfigured into nightmarish blobs, and all the bright colors of day had been chased into the Stygian depths. Pillows, beads, and pictures of unicorns, all covered in shadow.

The light of the world was absent, and so too was it's sound. The steady hum of electricity had ceased. No more could be heard of the whirring of machinery. The constant static of everyday life- a distant memory.

It was dark. It was quiet. It was beautiful and serene. It was sacred. It was..._scary!_

Peering out from under the covers, hands clutching desperately at the sheets, Starfire cautiously surveyed her room. She licked her lips nervously. A quiet gulp. Then she sat up straight. The princess clutched her teeth tight, as her eyes probed the area for some semblance of recognition.

She sought to perceive the hideous teeth glaring at her, as a hair brush. That leering little creature on the floor was a chair, but it did not look like it. The tamerainian turned toward the viscous looking tail by the window. That _had_ to be a curtain, and yet it still loomed over her, black and terrible.

She took a deep breath, sighed, and closed her eyes tight. "Blamock tou-al," she muttered vehemently, while shaking her head, fingers pinching the space between her eyes.

"Slae-vyn mayyel tave'en, Koriander," the girl repeated to herself. "Mayyel tave'en!"

Starfire breathed in deep, and exhaled slowly, feeling the air push out of her chest. She opened her eyes once more. There she was, still in her room. Her quiet, dark room. The calm she sought to compose fleeing slowly from her, her steeled nerves starting to wilt, she stared into the abyss.

With fervor anew (although diminishing) Kori lighted her gaze on what she _**knew**_to be a hat sitting on her dresser. Yet she could not ignore it's startling, and somewhat baffling, resemblance to a Cramorian Fangor Beast. Fear clutching at her chest, Starfire frantically scanned her room for some comfort.

She began whispering fiercely to herself. Strange words echoed off her walls. Alien words that sounded like, "Mukta," or "Ko-eh-yo". Dire little foreign syllables crashing around in the gloom.

Breathing in exasperation Starfire threw her head back. This was stupid. She had been through so much in her life. Why should she be scared of _nothing_? It was dark, yes, but it had been dark in the holding cells too. She had made her way through that blackness. Why should she be afraid now?

In the back of her mind a voice seemed to answer her. No! That couldn't be it. That was just a dream. A stupid stupid dream. Why then was she suddenly so afraid? The princess tried to recall the details, but they were mostly lost to the void. Only the fear remained.

"Asnek!" She yelled with an unholy mixture of resolve and trepidation. The warrior threw her covers off. With determined purpose she set her feet upon the floor. She would not be brought to terror over foolish thoughts. She would not be a coward. She would walk across her room, through the infernal drapes of night. She would flip the light switch on the other side of this blackness, and banish these shades of demons forever.

By her bed, Koriander warrior princess of Tameran, stood fierce and unflinching in her _Waverly Place_ sleepwear. Until a relic from childhood echoed through time, and reminded her that some demonic creature could come clawing up from under that bed at any moment. Slobbering and chattering, it would wrap it's long green tongue around her ankles and claw at her flesh with it's razor sharp talons, as it drug her down to some unknown hell. This turned what was supposed to be a determined walk into a mad prance/sprint toward the light switch.

Starfire stayed there for an eternity, hand on the switch, clinging to the wall. Still panting after what was definitely five minutes, she turned slowly to survey her now illuminated room. The teeth had turned back into a hairbrush, and the curtains no longer seemed to desire her blood. The floor Koriander stood on seemed stable, and she now found her room to be Fangor Beast free. All of the monster were gone, but her fear was still there.

She could feel it, like a weight pressing her chest. She grabbed at her stomach, and noticed she was having trouble breathing, she must have been for some time. All at once, she felt harried. She couldn't stay still. She had to move. Had to get out of there. Whatever this was, it was getting worse. She had to go somewhere else, _anywhere_ else. Somewhere there were people. That's it! A person! She needed to find some body. **Now**!

Koriander opened her door and stepped nervously into the hallway. Her right arm raised high above her head, a ball of energy surrounding it, her own personal torch. She jumped a little when the door closed behind her, but kept walking, eyes darting back and forth down the empty corridor, watching the shadows play off the glow of her built-in flashlight. She didn't exactly no where she was walking to, but she kept moving, ears peeled for any noises.

The hall was a desolate passageway, devoid of any decorations or furniture which might be misconstrued as some sort of bogart, but that did not help Princess Koriander's calm. Her light flicked wildly as her hands trembled.

Somewhere in the distance a digital clock beeped to signal the hour, and Starfire responded by throwing a starbolt down the hall way. This was followed by a brief period of limbo in which she hoped no one heard her firing at random shadows in the night. After a moment, though, the rational part of her mind became drowned out by the the growing unease of standing in the hallway surrounded by what was now utter darkness.

Darkness held no remorse.

The heroine's painful purgatory thus came to an end, as Starfire began blindly running down the hall at full speed. After two whole minutes of running her feet stopped at her destination. Her brain took another moment to figure out where her feet had led her.

Summoning up a clumsy glow, she let shine another flicker of light on the name inscribed on the door, but she already knew who's room this was. She saw the **R** at the beginning. She saw the ending **N**. She saw all the letters in-between, and wondered why, of all places, had she ran here. The tameranian began debating about whether or not she really wanted to be here. She stared at those five intimidating letters and shifted her feet.

She cast a sidelong glance back down hall, and felt a new wave of terror wash over her. Her heart sank into her gut, and she suddenly felt nauseous. That was when Starfire decided this was _exactly_ where she wanted to be.

* * *

Raven's brain vaguely registered somebody banging on her door like a madman, but only vaguely. Still it was enough awareness to get her system moving, and she made a noise somewhere between snorting and oinking as she sprang to semi-consciousness.

"Uuuughh," She moaned like the undead as she rolled over onto her back, her face sticking slightly to the pillow due to a rather large puddle of drool that had been accumulating for some time. She moaned again. This time in her throat, as she was now faced with the reality of having to move.

BANG!BANG!BANG!

The incessant ruckus sounded again, causing Raven to lurch forward and scowl at the daunting eight foot trek to her door. Still thoroughly un-awake, but now infused with simultaneous _worry-for_ and _desire-to-kill_ whoever was on the other side of that door, she started her journey. Eyes crusted over with sleep, clothes wet with sweat and drool, breath that she assumed smelt vaguely like death, Raven moved toward said door with the stagger of an amphetamine-fueled Bob Dylan.

The sorceress sent magic flying blindly through the room, feeling deep with herself, and with a flick of the wrist a row of candles lit up. Taking a moment to compose herself, she slid the door open it's usual crack and leered menacingly into the hall. The effect was, however, ruined due to her eye only being half-open.

"Friend Raven," a hushed voice whined urgently, "Are you awake?"

Staring blankly at the girl before her, Raven strained to take the image in. Starfire was standing in the hallway, out of her mind with fright. Her hair was mess, and she looked to have completely soaked through her _Disney_ pajamas. In her bleary state it took a moment to process the information, but once she had, Raven replied with the only logical response to the situation.

"Selena Gomez?"

Starfire looked flustered for a moment before glancing down at her pants. "Oh yes I have taking to watching the Wizards and it is most excellent. Truthfully though I..." As she trailed off, Raven noticed her voice was as distressed as her appearance.

"Starfire. What's wrong?" Raven said this with a balance of sternness and concern designed specifically to illicit a reaction from insane alien princess superheros who deemed it reasonable to awaken half-demon sorceress' from their slumber.

It seemed to snap her back to attention and she began again, "Forgive me , but...but..." The princess' pupils were dancing back and forth in her head, and it seemed like she couldn't really bring herself to say what she needed to. The girl went red, red enough for Raven to see in the dim light of the scented candles purchased from neo-pagan bookstores. Realizing this would be a dead end, Raven tried again.

Rubbing her eyes in both tiredness and exasperation, she mumbled heavily "Kori. Would you like to come in?"

Starfire's face lit up, and Raven took this as a _yes_. She slid the door open the rest of the way, and was almost tackled by an hysterical alien.. The empath shut the door, and then turned to the refugee from the darkness. She could sense the fear balled up in her friends chest, and it was starting to bother her.

"Now, can you take a deep breath and tell me exactly what this is about?"

Still looking abashed and distraught, and now also thoroughly confused, she inhaled like she was drowning, and breathed out hard enough to extinguish some of the candles.

"Oookaay, that's step one." Raven said in a some what dumfounded tone. " Now how about that explanation."

Panting Kori looked up, "Raven I- I am afraid."

"I believe that's a condition of existence. Would I be chancing to much If I asked, _Of what_?"

"Ooooh I do not know friend!" She exclaimed, sitting down on Raven's bed. "There is no reason for it. I have not been afraid like this before, only...Only I cannot escape the shadows this night. They all seem hungry, and particularly viscous."

Starfire buried her face in her hands as she finished. Raven sat down beside on the bed, and lightly rested a hand on her shoulder.

"So you're telling me that you've suddenly contracted a fear of the dark," She began, stone-faced, "and there's no precedent for this?"

"Please," came the muffeled answer, "What is _Precedent_?"

"Do you have a history of being afraid of the dark?"

Starfire raised her head to look at her friend face to face, she was crying now,"Oh it is not just the darkness Raven. I have turned on the lights and was unaffected. It is not that I am afraid of dark, it is that I am simply afraid, and I do no know why!"

The tameranian lunged at Raven, and wrapped her arms around her, burying her head in the dark girl's chest. Raven looked up at the ceiling, and awkwardly wrapped her arms around the crying princess.

"Now, now " She said, though slightly uneasy, "It's alright, shh."

After about ten minutes,though, the crying had degraded to hysterical hiccups, and Raven decided that enough was enough. With some effort she pried the girl off her, and held her in place. Looking deep in her swollen red eyes, she addressed her wildly hiccuping friend.

"Starfire, we all have things that scare- even terrify us, if only from time to time. Sometimes we don't know why. Okay? There's nothing wrong with it, but you have got to get a grip!" She shook her softly.

"Now I understand it's hard, but calm down." She continued, laughing slightly to help comrade at ease. "It's alright, okay. I'm sure if you get some sleep you'll feel better. Really"

The color drained from the Princess' face. "Raven I-hic, I-I do not want-hic, to g-go out in that-in that -hic h-hall-"

Raven put up her finger to silence the girl, and sighed. She knew this was coming from the moment she saw her standing outside the door. "It's okay Kori. You can sleep with me tonight."

Starfire looked relieved and smiled slightly. Raven motioned her hand and all of the candles blew out, save one. Returning the alien's smile. she used her sleeve to wipe Kori's eyes, as she added,"But tomorrow... we're buying you a nightlight."


End file.
